Character Codex - Round 15 - Halfling Barbarian and Bard

June 4, 2014 Than Gibson

Greetings Chroniclers and welcome to the Character Codex!

We're working our way through all 77 race/class combinations in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. We're showing off the Halfling Barbarian and Bard today. If you've missed any previous entries you can catch up HERE!

Now, I know, I'm skipping ahead by doing halflings, but I have a reason. After halflings then we'll do half-elves, half-orcs, and finally humans,

Virtual tabletop players, make sure to pick up some free tokens suitable for use in any virtual tabletop environment.

Want to support the Character Codex? Have me draw your own personal RPG character! RPG Character Sketches are inexpensive and a great way to show off your characters unique qualities. You can find out more about that HERE!

Here come the halflings!

First up is the Halfling Barbarian. Halfling Barbarians have become a bit more common in the last decade or so with several tabletop RPGs having these wild halflings roaming deserts and plains. So I went in a slightly different direction and made her a sea reaver. I grew up on Dragonlance and there were sea barbarians in that setting. They were pirates, but more like actual pirates and less like swashbuckling Jack Sparrows. It was nice to see these barbarian pirates show back up in Pathfinder.

For her design I wanted her to wear flowing clothes that could breathe well on the open water. Also, halflings on Chronicle, called Caun, love bright colors, scarves, sashes, and patches. So I had to toss a few on her. She's very utilitarian in design. More function, less flash than other pirates. Her harpoon is actually a medium-sized one handed harpoon.

Next up is the Halfling Bard. The Caun of Chronicle are nomadic and they keep their history in stories and in song. Most Caun can tell a good story or hum a nice tune, but Caun Bards are something special. They are masters of their trade and one of the few classes of Caun that the dwarves of Jaxstein will allow into the dwarven capital.

As I mentioned previously, Chronicle's halflings love color. Patches and scarves add accents and this guy has already begun to accessorize his performance outfit. The green hair comes from their fey blood. We'll get more into that in the coming weeks. But one of the key differences between Caun and regular halflings is that they are fey, giving them that odd social disconnect that so many fey have.

That's it for this week! Next week we'll take a look at the divine side of halflings with the Halfling Cleric and Druid.

As always, leave a comment if you have one, If you like what you see here, please Follow, Like, and Share this on the social media of your choice,

The Chronicler's Notes - Biggest Month Yet and a New Shop!

June 2, 2014 Than Gibson

Greetings Chroniclers!

Welcome to another week here at Chronicle!

Wow. May was huge. Seriously guys, I am humbled by the response my four-month old website has received. Whether you came here for the comic, the Character Codex, or my Fun Art Friday Drawings (or hopefully all of them!) I want to thank you so much for stopping by to check out what I have to offer. I hope you keep coming back and that you like my work. Comments are always welcome, I leave the comments on at the bottom of every page for you to leave your input, so feel free to do so if you have some.

Here's some quick numbers for you, to show how awesome you guys are. 17,794 page views total, 7191 of those were just in May. 8104 unique visitors total, 3162 unique visitors in just May. 719 page views just on May 22. We will pass out 10,000th site visit most likely this week!

Seriously. Thank you.

Now, onto new stuff.

The World of Chronicle kicks off Halfling Month with a look at Chronicle's spin on halflings, the Caun.
The Character Codex moves into Halflings on Wednesday with the Halfling Barbarian and Halfling Bard
This week we hit Strip 20 in the comic with some big revelations about our mysterious adventurers. Make sure to come back on Thursday for that!
Friday, we'll have another fun drawing! I got a LOT of great response from Rocket Jayne. If you haven't seen it yet, make sure to go check it out. T-shirts are now available in the Artist's Shop.
Which brings me to the NEW Artist's Shop! I've added more items and made navigation a bit simpler. Please consider purchasing something. We've got a great thing going and I want Chronicle to support itself.

Have a great week and thanks again!

Than

Fun Art Friday! - Rocket Jayne!

May 30, 2014 Than Gibson

It's Fun Art Friday! If you don't know what you're looking at go watch Firefly and read Guardians of the Galaxy now! Both of these sci-fi properties are really worth spending some time with. I'm pretty excited about the Guardians movie coming out in August (right before my birthday!) A lot of my non-comic reading friends are scratching their heads at it, but, man it has so much potential to be one of those really fun sci-fi movies, like Fifth Element or Firef;y/Serenity (except for that part at the end of course). So I dressed Rocket Raccoon up like Jayne Cobb.

If you like this, you need to get it on a T-Shirt! I've opened up a Teepublic store and this is my first experiment with it. If it does well, I will put up more.

I also want to acknowledge the amazing Skottie Young, whose design of Rocket I used for inspiration. Go check out his stuff and send some love his wayl

Character Codex - Round 14 - Gnome Sorcerer and Gnome Wizard

May 28, 2014 Than Gibson

Greetings Chroniclers and welcome to the Character Codex!

We're stepping our way through all 77 race/class combinations in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook. We're showing off the Gnome Sorcerer and Gnome Wizard today. If you've missed any previous entries you can catch up HERE!

We've finished up the gnomes this week! I hope you all have enjoyed a look at the most maligned race in the core rules. I've enjoyed drawing them and getting to show off some potentially interesting ideas with them.

Next week, we're moving on to halflings. Now, I know, I'm skipping ahead, but I have a reason that you will all see shortly. After halflings then we'll do half-elves, half-orcs, and finally humans,

Virtual tabletop players, make sure to pick up some free tokens suitable for use in any virtual tabletop environment. Since this is the last week for the gnomes, the tokens will rotate out and you'll be able to start picking up the halflings.

Okay, let's look at some gnomes!

First up is the Gnome Sorcerer. With the gnomes, I wanted to show how they could be more than just the annoying fey folk. They could be cool, tough, comical, and, yes, even sexy. This is our gnome fire dancer. I would imagine she's from the Choreography Division of the Bureau of Liberal Arts. They're all a bunch of reprobates down there.

This was my first real drawing with my new Surface Pro 2. Not too bad for my first go, but you'll see with the wizard that my line quality was still in transition here. I'm really loving the better sensitivity the Surface has in comparison to my old tablet. I can really tell a difference.

Next up is the Gnome Wizard. This guy is the head gnome. Chief Librarian of The Great Library and Director of the Gnomish Nation, Norminthallis of the Bureau of Magical Archival Studies. Norm is a venerable sage who seems to know everything. Many such sages retreat to isolated mountaintops but he chooses to continue his work in the Great Library where he is accessible to any gnome with a question. He is often found walking through the stacks offering tidbits of advice to any researchers and looking over their designs. To him, this ensures that the Gnomish Nation moves forward.

Norm doesn't wear the robes of a wizard or sage. He prefers a more presentable three-piece suit (a new design from the Bureau of Fashion!). He does seem to always wear gloves, one of his quirks. Gnome wizards do not typically join the Brotherhood of the Threefold Path like wizards of other races. Gnomes believe that the Brotherhood is more of a political organization and less scholarly than their own bureaus.

That's it for the gnomes! Make sure to check back tomorrow for a new Chronicle strip! We'll see you next week with the Halfling Barbarian and Bard!

The Chronicler's Notes - Biggest Week Ever! (and then karma comes along.)

May 26, 2014 Than Gibson

Greetings Chroniclers!

Wow! We broke all the records last week! Over 700 page views on Thursday! Over 6000 page views for the month and we still have a week to go!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and if you have come back for more thank you especially!

Of course, when Chronicle's biggest week ever happens, something has to happen to even that out. There has to be balance in the Force. So, my computer died. I've drawn Chronicle so far on an old HP tx2000 tablet PC. It never had a lot of power but it did have a Wacom Touchscreen and it worked great with Manga Studio. It was clunky and heavy, but so am I!

On Friday, the second power adapter in 3 months blew. I rushed a third power adapter (thanks Amazon Prime!) and plugged it only to discover that the Wacom screen was dead. I had been having a lot of trouble with it coming on after a power-off. So, I was keeping it in sleep mode when not using it. With the power adapter shot, the battery died and that was that. I spent an hour trying to get that screen to come back on. Nothing. The data was fine, no art lost (cloud backup, kids!). But I had no way to draw the comic and get it to you guys.

First (really) quick sketch of Autumn on the Surface Pro. — First (*really*) quick sketch of Autumn on the Surface Pro.

So, I got a new tablet. A Surface Pro 2 (I know the 3's are coming, but I couldn't wait). It's fantastic. I'm sure many of you have heard Mike Krahulik over at Penny Arcade rave about these things so I won't go into great detail about it. But, let me assure you, as a small time cartoonist who is not getting free hardware, Mike's on the level. It does everything he says it does. I couldn't afford the 8gb RAM models, but I have yet to notice any problems with the 4gb. This thing is much more responsive than the old HP, so I have to retrain my hand a bit. So bear with me if the art shifts around in quality for a bit.

The thing is this came at a tight time in my family's budget. It had to go on a credit card (with no interest for a year, but still). It was worth it to continue doing something I love and to bring something that clearly people seem to be enjoying (almost 200 direct visits last week!)

But, I have to put my hat out there again and ask that if you truly enjoy what I'm doing, then please consider clicking on the Tip Jar button or at least one of the Google Ads at the bottom of the page. Even better, let me learn this great new tool by drawing for you! Go buy a character sketch from the Artist's Shop. It's cheap and I would rather do that than launching a crowdfunding campaign (which I had planned to do in the second year).

Tip Jar

Also, SHARE, SHARE, SHARE! Follow me on Tumblr, Twitter, and Facebook. Re-share those posts and let's recruit even more Chroniclers!

Again, thank you all so much for coming here and seeing what I do. It fills me with encouragement to see so many people from all over the world looking at my art. I wouldn't still be here if it weren't for that.

Thank you.

Than